GPU Stock Up Overseas As Crypto-Limited RTX Cards Arrive

MSI
(Image credit: MSI)

Getting one of the best graphics cards at almost any price was close to impossible just two or three months ago, but the situation is starting to get better as Nvidia's new Light Hash Rate (LHR) series of GeForce RTX 30-series cards are beginning to arrive. Prices of graphics boards are still high in the US, Europe, and Japan, but now that LHR boards are here, at least they do not attract attention of miners. 

Earlier this month we reported in our GPU Pricing Index that tracks U.S.  pricing and availability of the lastest graphics cards that many of the add-in-boards we follow got as much as 12.6% cheaper when compared to the first half of May. The cards are still expensive, but we might be starting to see a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel.  

Geizhals.eu, a search engine that tracks hardware prices and availability in Austria, Germany, Poland, and the UK, now lists 19 different GeForce RTX 30-series LHR graphics boards as available from tens of retailers in several countries. Their prices range from €599 for a GeForce RTX 3060 to €1899 for a GeForce RTX 3080 Ti. In total, there are about 100 GeForce RTX 30-series LHR models listed, but the majority of them are unavailable. There are over a hundred of non-LHR SKUs listed as available and their prices vary in about the same ranges, so graphics cards continue to be a luxury in this part of the world.  

Thousands of miles away from Europe, visitors of large stores located in the famous Akihabara district of Tokyo also report that graphics boards started to re-appear on the shelves. The majority of the new boards that arrive are indeed GeForce RTX 30-series LHR models that pose little interest to miners. The prices continue to be high, even soaring, but at least the cards are in stock. 

"We have plenty of graphics cards in stock," a representative for Dospara store told ITMedia.co.jp. "The only new models arriving are LHR models. The price is still soaring, but the inventory itself is reasonable."

The situation in the US meanwhile hasn't improved much. Online retail stores like Amazon and Newegg still don't have much if any direct inventory, and Newegg continues to sell all new GPUs via its Shuffle lottery system. PCPartPicker as another example only shows a dozen GPUs with prices, and half of those are two or more generations old — and the other half are severely overpriced. BestBuy meanwhile shows two cards in stock, a GT 720 2GB for $70 and a GT 1030 2GB for $130.

Unfortunately, there are no truly accurate ways to monitor availability and sales numbers of graphics cards (outside of the quarterly reports from major analyst firms like Jon Peddie Research), but based on various indicators we can say that the situation with availability is getting better. The prices are still high because demand exceeds supply and because the industry is working under high load, but at least availability in retail seems to be improving.

Anton Shilov
Contributing Writer

Anton Shilov is a contributing writer at Tom’s Hardware. Over the past couple of decades, he has covered everything from CPUs and GPUs to supercomputers and from modern process technologies and latest fab tools to high-tech industry trends.

  • Heat_Fan89
    This morning Newegg had the LQ version of the 6900XT in stock. Price is around $2500 but it was being shipped and sold by Newegg. Hopefully this trend continues.
    Reply
  • ReallyBigMistake
    Thank you PRC for going after bitcoin. Hopefully prices crash and we get normal prices GPUs once again. I guess the price of this was giving Taiwan to PRC...... sorry I guess
    Reply
  • fireaza
    Can confirm the info about GPU supply in Japan. The cards all sold out at release, but we're seeing more and more of them in-stock for much longer periods. Prices are WAY above RRP, even at regular brick and mortar stores. For the price they're asking for an RTX 3080Ti, you could import an RTX 3090 from the U.S. You know, if they were in-stock that is.
    Reply
  • Luiz S
    Nvidia is purposefully reducing the performance of a product. The excuse is to restrict the legal and legitimate use of the graphic cards for crypto currency mining. Nvidia blame users/miners for the market situation.

    Cryptocurrency mining could have been the culprit at some point. Now, there is not enough electronics components to attend demand. Nvidia can not produce enough cards due to supply chain issues. That is the actual problem. Even the so-called LHR cards are not easily found and are overpriced. Are they going to blame users fot that too?

    I am not primarily a crypto currency miner. I use graphic cards to accelerate computations. But I want to be able to use the cards I buy at their best performance. If I want to run Etherium based algorithms, I should be able to, at the best performance of my card. If I decide to mine cryptocurrency (which I do occasionally, on the rare times when it is worthwhile in my area, in order to help cover the cost of these expensive cards), I demand to be able to get the best performance.

    This is a dangerous precedent. What is the next: poorer ARM processors to avoid use as …—you fill in?
    Reply